My name is Sarah Payne and welcome to my blog - the meandering thoughts of a quilting nut trying to make a living following my creative bee. Please feel free to browse and comment.Website: www.sarahpayne.co.uk Twitter: @sezpayne

Thursday, 23 May 2013

May has been an extremely busy month and I can't believe that it has almost flown by, especially when I look out of the window at the gloomy weather we seem to be stuck with. Today it was hail, sun, hail, wind.... Yuck!!

So to brighten up my days I pulled out the brightest piece of fabric I could find in my stash and just went for it with some free motion machine quilting!

As I am teaching a class on free motion machine quilting in a few weeks it was a good excuse to just let myself go with some of the feather designs I have been drawing in my quilt designs book. I'm afraid the pictures are a bit fuzzy but the light wasn't brilliant. I hope you get the idea!

This piece is 120cm x 40cm and isnt finished yet as you can see from the last picture (and needs a good press), but we are getting there and it is just so much fun!!!

﻿

I started this book recently as Bev Mayo from RoeMayo suggested gathering all those designs we create together in one place to act as an inspiration and design resource, as well as a way to find out if a pattern will actually work without starting on your precious quilt. So I thought I'd give it a go!

Here are some of the pages!

Here I am having a play with some spirals.

A few flowers and roses!

For some reason the next few pictures refuse to stand upright so I hope you get the gist whilst tipping your head to one side!

﻿I have thoroughly enjoyed this a great deal and I look forward to adding more pages! I can't wait to share this lot with the ladies on my course! They are going to have a lot of fun!

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Apparently spring is in the air - though it doesnt look much like that in my garden!

So to brighten things up a bit I got together some of my scraps to make this strippy scrappy little number that will become a workshop later in the year.

It was great fun to make, (it is foundation pieced for ease) and it was a great excuse to get out all those bits and bobs I have lingering in the bottom of my scrap boxes. It must have taken me the best part of a day just to decide on the fabrics!

Thursday, 2 May 2013

As an avid sewist, I make a mess in my sewing room! And I mean a REAL mess. This is the result at the end of last weekend! Oh my!!!!

It had got to the point where I was beginning to worry that the fabric boxes would topple on top of me one day and I would die in some bizarre sewing/horder accident! So Monday night I got the hoover and the bin bag out and after 5 hours tidying we have the following result!

It feels so wonderful to be in there now with the sunlight streaming through the window onto a clean and tidy floor. All my UFOs are boxed up and labelled, and the fabric is all sorted and stored neatly in clear boxes. Now I am ready to get designing with a clear mind and a clear table. Now how relaxed and smug do you think I feel now!!

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

I love it when two of my great loves; technology and quilting, meet! I was enjoying a glass of cider in my sunny garden the other day when I noticed the QR Code on my cider bottle. You may have seen these little fellas all over the place. They are black and white images that can be scanned with a smart phone and will take you to a website or show a message. As I looked at it, I thought "that looks like a postage stamp quilt" and an idea was born.

The ever patient boyfriend found me a qr writer website where we could just type in a message and get an image out!

I did a very simple grid on black and white and set to work with 1 1/2 inch squares in black and white and after a couple of nights sewing I had my own bit of quilting technology!

So if you have a qr reader on your smart phone you should be able to hold it up to this blog and get a message! Anyone....?

Well - for those of you who don't have a qr reader, it will take to straight to my shop website www.beeingcrafty.co.uk

So this will be perfect for the next show we attend! Unfortunately it wasn't ready for the Quilters Guild Region 9 meeting this month but it will be ready for our stand at Cottenham Summer School!

About Me - teacher, learner and creator!

Sarah Payne.
I am a creative creature that feels the need to make stuff constantly. Whether that means making textiles, beaded jewellery, a meal or a mess I am always up to something.
I demonstrate sewing and quilting skills for Create & Craft UK and US shopping channels.
Website: www.sarahpayne.co.uk
Twitter: @sezpayne
Facebook: @sarahpaynequilter